frank kogan needs to know the diff between a pub and a bar

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Irish country pubs are just houses with large turf fires everywhere.

English pubs tend to be more loungey than Irish ones in my experience.

Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 3 February 2003 10:42 (twenty-one years ago) link

ANd plenty of pubs have booths - cf the Cittie Of Yorke.

Pete (Pete), Monday, 3 February 2003 11:02 (twenty-one years ago) link

Booths in pubs rock!

Pete this thread is a wake-up call to those of us who have neglected the publog. (ie everyone but you Tim and Starry)

Tom (Groke), Monday, 3 February 2003 11:12 (twenty-one years ago) link

Well yes, there are exceptions! But I think the connotations of "pub" ie public, with a kind of communal space - the Platonic form of which is probably the Queen Vic - are interesting. Whereas the bar seems to me to imply a kind of privacy, either of the American solitary/independent, or British post-80s privatized, variety.

Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Monday, 3 February 2003 11:12 (twenty-one years ago) link

Bars are shiny, pubs are grimy.

Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Monday, 3 February 2003 11:14 (twenty-one years ago) link

Booths in pubs = dud of colossal proportions. I want communality in a pub... if you want privacy, sit and drink at home.

Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 3 February 2003 11:16 (twenty-one years ago) link

No no no no no Matt DC, booths in pubs = GREBT! The best pub in the world has both booths AND open communal bits, so you can choose! Downstairs = lots of little nooks and crannies and little stairs and hidden bits and a tv and a motorbike hanging on the wall and lots of dark wood and stuff and upstairs = open bit with a hole int he middle and a banister so you can see downstairs + big green sofas and big tables and typewriters and old newspapers above the bar.

Man, I love that pub and I ain't been there in two years nearly. I need to go back.

BTW, pub = The Charles Bradlaugh in Northampton.

Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Monday, 3 February 2003 11:21 (twenty-one years ago) link

B-b-but Jerry CHEERS!

Booths are fantastic for small groups - you can sit and scheme cosily surrounded by the mighty oak (or facsimile thereof). Useless for more than about 5 people though.

The Shakespeare at Victoria Station used to have a CAVE underneath with booths (I think it was the shakespeare).

Tom (Groke), Monday, 3 February 2003 11:23 (twenty-one years ago) link

Cheers is the most wistful pipedream of American culture: a bunch of losers finding companionship and solidarity (Moe's is the reality).

Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Monday, 3 February 2003 11:26 (twenty-one years ago) link

They weren't losers in Cheers. Were they?

Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Monday, 3 February 2003 11:28 (twenty-one years ago) link

(Actually, thinking about America and individualism/loneliness has reminded me: LESLIE FIELDER DIED LAST WEEK! I would like to honour him by dedicating this small corner of a foreign internet board to his memory. LF RIP)

Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Monday, 3 February 2003 11:30 (twenty-one years ago) link

Sam = recovering alcoholic, chronic philanderer
Norm = unemployed, hates his wife, spends all day in bar
Diane = over-educated, under-employed neurotic
Cliff = need I go on?

Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Monday, 3 February 2003 11:32 (twenty-one years ago) link

I found them quite aspirational.

Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Monday, 3 February 2003 11:34 (twenty-one years ago) link

Yes and the punters in the Queen Vic are k-well-adjusted!

Tom (Groke), Monday, 3 February 2003 11:35 (twenty-one years ago) link

(sp: FIEDLER :( )

Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Monday, 3 February 2003 11:35 (twenty-one years ago) link

That Harry chap what used to be in Boon was particularly inspirational to me, I seem to remember.

Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Monday, 3 February 2003 11:36 (twenty-one years ago) link

Tom - the point is that there is still the (fast-fading) myth that Brits go to their "local" for something approaching "community". I don't think this has ever been the case in the US, which is why Cheers is so poignant.

Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Monday, 3 February 2003 11:40 (twenty-one years ago) link

The sense of community is exactly why I go to my local. But bearing in mind my local always seems to have the exact same seven old men sitting in exactly the same positions every time I go in there.

Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 3 February 2003 11:46 (twenty-one years ago) link

I got bored of reading the arguments and skipped to the end, so if this has been said, humble apologies.
Does Pub not stand for Public Bar? Does not a Pub always have a Bar and then a Lounge for the Laydees/More genteel folk?
Therefore this argument is pointless for they are one and the same thing, non?
I think yer just arguing the difference between a Local Pub and a Trendy Pub, but then I live in Glasgow and we are a FAP free zone so my knowledge is limited......

smee (smee), Monday, 3 February 2003 11:55 (twenty-one years ago) link

Does not a Pub always have a Bar and then a Lounge for the Laydees/More genteel folk?

If only that were still the case.

RickyT (RickyT), Monday, 3 February 2003 11:58 (twenty-one years ago) link

PUB = anywhere that sells alcohol with a bar
BAR = made up name for people who don't like using the word pub, so they sound posh.

ie, there is no difference

Fuzzy (Fuzzy), Monday, 3 February 2003 11:58 (twenty-one years ago) link

Does the existence of pub-rock prove my theory that people who go to pubs are rockists by definition?

alext (alext), Monday, 3 February 2003 12:39 (twenty-one years ago) link

No more than the existance of DJ Bars making Bars more dancist.
(so the answer is prolly yes).

Pete (Pete), Monday, 3 February 2003 13:06 (twenty-one years ago) link

The difference is whether you're expected to spend over £2.80* for a meagre bottle of not your choice of lager, or not**.

End of debate.

*this threshold may go up in central London.
**unless it's happy hour or student night or some bollocks.

dog latin, Monday, 3 February 2003 13:38 (twenty-one years ago) link

A pub is a publicans house, and it has a 'bar'.
I assume a place that isn't owned by a publican is therefore sometimes just called a bar.

oh i dunno.

Fuzzy (Fuzzy), Monday, 3 February 2003 13:44 (twenty-one years ago) link

Jerry, is there a way to apply Fiedler's classic essay "The Middle Against Both Ends" to the pub vs. bar question?

Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Monday, 3 February 2003 13:49 (twenty-one years ago) link

if you are a barstaff and you know how to make a white russian, you shd be paid more than a "pub-ning" = bud for £3

mark s (mark s), Monday, 3 February 2003 13:57 (twenty-one years ago) link

I don't know about the pub v bar question but you could apply it to well-spoken, expensively educated boys wanting to hang out in proper boozers with real working men punters and pictures of boxers and stuff on the wall!

Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Monday, 3 February 2003 13:57 (twenty-one years ago) link

oh hi frank!!

i think what suzy calls "feminised pubs" are the cursed middle here viz ALL BAR ONE (which is fine for eg office xmas lunch)

mark s (mark s), Monday, 3 February 2003 13:58 (twenty-one years ago) link

The problem with the discourse on feminised pubs is that most people agree they are the spawn of satan which is not strictly the fault of women or feminism per se. It is much more the fault of marketing men within the big brewers/pub chains. So whilst I think the description is apt - I fear that it is yet again another chink in the armour of the cause of equal rights.

The other think they all have in common is the light wood - so they could be called pined & wined pubs.

Pete (Pete), Monday, 3 February 2003 14:03 (twenty-one years ago) link

i prefer to call them Habitat

gareth (gareth), Monday, 3 February 2003 14:14 (twenty-one years ago) link

"If only that were still the case. "

Ricky T has an important point here. One important difference between pubs and bars which is fast disappearing is that bars are all one room whereas pubs, traditionally, were separated into the Saloon and Public Bar. Even though the divides have been knocked down in lots of pubs, many still have separate rooms for playing pool ect ect. Bars may have alcoves, but are rarely if ever have separate rooms.

"On tap" isn't the important thing, it's what comes out of the taps. And whether it is refrigerated or not.

If the person in charge is referred to as the landlady or landlord, it's a pub. If they have a dog, it's a pub. If the sign comes out of the wall at right-angles and it's suspended from a wrought iron structure or it is on a separate post outside, it's a pub.


MarkH (MarkH), Monday, 3 February 2003 14:49 (twenty-one years ago) link

Q2: what is the diff betwn a pub and an inn?
Q3: horse brasses and the role they play
Q4: "oam, you baint wanned round these paarts"

mark s (mark s), Monday, 3 February 2003 14:52 (twenty-one years ago) link

Oh, hi Mark, what a coincidence meeting you here, of all places.

What about taverns?

Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Monday, 3 February 2003 14:58 (twenty-one years ago) link

A tavern has to be dark and smokey with a roaring fire and knights setting out on noble quests and a sleeping whore in the corner.

Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 3 February 2003 15:02 (twenty-one years ago) link

Or is that an inn?

Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 3 February 2003 15:02 (twenty-one years ago) link

Many years go I edited a monthly magazine called 'Hertfordshire Taverns'.

Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Monday, 3 February 2003 15:03 (twenty-one years ago) link

JtN, where do you get the idea that Americans don't have locals?

My sister is a bartender and waitress at a bar/short order grill three blocks from her house which some ilXors have even been to drink/eat at (see Minnesota thread). It has regular, local customers (inc. one pro US football coach) who are in there a few times each week, know the names of bar staff, and don't go anywhere else in the area for a quick drink.

My dad, for years, was manager of 'sports bar' full of regular, known-to-staff-by-name guys who participated in the bar's softball team, which went to play other teams from other area bars also comprised of locals (sports bar locals are alwayus the guys who were jocks in school, long since retired to armchair sports, like my dad the 300-lb former Junior Olympics athlete).

A local bar in the US will have a few different beers on tap and burgerish food is served with fries in those plastic baskets lined with wax paper. In fact, 'local' rule of thumb for the US is whether or not the bar exhibits some kind of Burger Pride.

Frank: a 'tavern' is a local bar in Wisconsin.

suzy (suzy), Monday, 3 February 2003 15:03 (twenty-one years ago) link

if it's in wisconsin how the hell is it local?

outraged of east london (mark s), Monday, 3 February 2003 15:05 (twenty-one years ago) link

I think the point I'm making is that local diners or Sports bars in the US don't fulfill the function of local pubs in the UK, Suzy, eg: doing Sunday Roasts, having a cricket or bowls team, having a "family area" and garden etc etc.

Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Monday, 3 February 2003 15:10 (twenty-one years ago) link

Mark, it's local if you're in Wisconsin.

JtN, the function is *exactly* the same as the function of local pubs here (such as the nice one under our flat). Americans go to their local bar to watch the game on Sunday and eat either brunch or burgers or even Sunday roast, you *do* have affiliated sports teams, a dart board and billiards, and usually you can bring the family in with you to eat the food.

Headfuck of the Day: you can only buy Tavern Snacks crisps...in pubs.

suzy (suzy), Monday, 3 February 2003 15:17 (twenty-one years ago) link

an inn has rooms to sleep in
a tavern is staffed with bawdy wenches*

*invalid if australian

mark s (mark s), Monday, 3 February 2003 15:20 (twenty-one years ago) link

Maybe I have been going to the wrong American bars then Suzy, cos most of the ones I have been to make the Moe's Tavern seem like a rosy idyll!

Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Monday, 3 February 2003 15:25 (twenty-one years ago) link

Well-spoken, expensively educated boys wanting to hang out in proper boozers

But Jer (if I can call you that), this now is the middle. Back in the '50s, when Fiedler wrote his essay (about comic books!), the process by which the art freaks allied with the juvenile delinquents to create successive bohemias and those bohemias were then absorbed into the middle and so new JD-art-freak bohemias had to break off, this played out over years, whereas now it takes about two weeks. And I think Leslie underestimated how much art-darkness already was a part of the "middle's" values: when the freaks separate out, they don't at first come up with values counter to the culture but rather take those values to extremes, act out contradictions.

But I'm being glib here, and don't really remember the essay. I think what underlay it (though I don't remember his addressing this directly) was official America's refusal to acknowledge limits on equality, and so the rejection of literacy embodied by comic books was also a rejection of standard class mobility but still further a rejection of conventional "working-class" immobility - so it's sort of like how Elvis was a movement up into flash and style rather than a movement up the ladder. And the well-spoken Leslie-Jew-boys moving into lumpen flash and style is not at all like hanging out in proper boozers. He's seeking the hero boys doing the battle of good and evil in the City of Night.

Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Monday, 3 February 2003 15:26 (twenty-one years ago) link

Were separated into the Saloon and Public Bar.

I remember sometime in the '70s reading about a New York bar called "The Saloon" that ran into trouble when someone unearthed an old, unrepealed prohibition-era ordinance that forbade an establishment's advertising itself as a "saloon." So the bureaucrats said, sorry guys, you're going to have to rename. So the bar reopened as "The Balloon."

Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Monday, 3 February 2003 15:37 (twenty-one years ago) link

The other think they all have in common is the light wood - so they could be called pined & wined pubs.

-- Pete (pb14@soas.ac.uk) (webmail), February 3rd, 2003 1:03 PM. (Pete) (link)
------------------------------------------------------------------------

i prefer to call them Habitat

-- gareth (gareth@norfolkwindmills.com) (webmail), February 3rd, 2003 1:14 PM. (gareth) (link)


I prefer to call them Places of Hell and Rugby Shirts.


Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I want handbag clips and big windows. Just fuck off with your marketing. Fuck off. < / bete noir>

Anna (Anna), Monday, 3 February 2003 15:38 (twenty-one years ago) link

Hence David Niven's well known book "The Saloon Is A Balloon".

Jerry, I think the whole point about locals is that generally only locals go there, so you not beiong local tended to prohibit you feeling a sense of belongng and finding out about the bars baseball team ect ect.

Anna's spot on with the Rugby Shirts.

Pete (Pete), Monday, 3 February 2003 15:40 (twenty-one years ago) link

Mark, it's local if you're in Wisconsin.

This sounds like the ultimate test of an ILX FAP -- how many of us would gather specifically to go to this place?

Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 3 February 2003 15:51 (twenty-one years ago) link

I wouldn't count on the Glasgow contingent.....

smee (smee), Monday, 3 February 2003 15:53 (twenty-one years ago) link

me either!

gareth (gareth), Monday, 3 February 2003 15:54 (twenty-one years ago) link


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